A2M rebrands, confirms Wet 2

Naughty Bear also getting a sequel from the company now known as Behaviour; upcoming titles for 3DS, PSP2 also hinted at.

Artificial Mind and Movement--more popularly known by the moniker A2M--has been busy of late. The Canadian developer has just finished the Wii port for The Sims 3, after releasing MySims SkyHeroes, Naughty Bear, and the PSP version of Dante's Inferno, along with a number of downloadable titles this year. The studio, which bills itself as Canada's largest independent developer, today confirmed sequels for the critically panned Naughty Bear, as well as 2009's more favorably reviewed stylized third-person shooter Wet. Neither title yet has a confirmed publisher.

The Eliza Dushku-voiced Wet was released in 2009 to mixed though generally favorable reviews.

The company announced the new titles jointly with a new name--henceforth it is to be known as Behaviour. The studio formerly known as A2M was originally known as Behaviour in the 1990s and latterly adopted the Artificial Mind and Movement moniker.

As well as Wet 2 and Naughty Bear 2, the company confirmed it was developing an XBLA title called Doritos Crash Course and a number of unannounced titles. These titles will be across multiple platforms, including "next generation handhelds," though no more details were offered by the developer. The company also has Rango in the works--a multiplatform family-friendly title, which is being developed for EA and Paramount Digital. Rango: The Video Game will tie in with the 2011 Jonny Depp animated film of the same name, though EA confirmed to GameSpot that Depp would not be lending his voice to the game tie-in.

It is also launching a Facebook game in November and has a "casual" massively multiplayer online game coming in early 2011. Behaviour intends to continue its work both developing its own IP, as well as working on a for-hire basis for other larger developers and publishing houses.

I thought Wet was a good overall game. Not great. But good and well worth the price I paid for it new.Rubi was an entertaining character and one that many who liked the title wil remember. I don't understand the knock on Eliza for voicing her part. I'm ready for the 2nd release.

Naughty Bear's getting a sequel? I didn't think it sold that well to even spawn a thought. I loved the concept but the gameplay sucked, if they can fix that in Naughty Bear 2 then maybe I'll pick that up.

Wet had potential, that was pretty much just wasted. For a game about a character that does any kind of work, to boil down simply to a QTE filled, shallow acting game was pretty disappointing. Hopefully they better capitalize on this idea, and vary up the gameplay.

So basically if you make two critically destroyed games, all you need to do is change the company name? Surely you'd be trying to distance yourself as much as possible from Wet? making a sequel probably isn't really the best idea

@dynomitemasta
I dont blindly rely on critics. i always dl the demo & then watch some gameplay on youtube & then i give the final verdict.
maybe u need to set ur standard a bit high instead of just being happy with a 7.5

These are actually 2 really smart moves by the company.
A2M was too generic so rebranding makes sense.
With this generation of consoles getting an extended life, the sequels make sense too and expect to see more companies do the same. Behaviour has many of the assets already inplace to make sequels to the two underperformers. The can tweak the engines for better performance. They can address the most common issues reviewers and gamers had with the first games. They can do it quickly and releatively cheaply.
Naughty Bear and Wet already have name recognition, so it is better than starting with a new IP. If they make the right improvements and put a higher quality title for each game, gamers will forget all about how bad/mediocre the first one was. Once people start seeing reviews of 8+, the negatives of the first games are distant memories.
The only question I have is whether Behaviour can deliver better than A2M did.

glad to see wet get another shot.....it did have it problems and i forgave a lot but i still liked the game and the protagonist....wet with rubi to me reminds me a lot of bloodrayne with rayne....a game that critics were some what mixed on but garnered a few fans....

didn't like WET and naughty bear was just trash. why/how would you make sequels to games that you could find in the bargain bin mere months after release? isn't that going against the whole concept of MAKING MONEY.

@dynomitemasta
This is not about '' trying out for ourselves ''. It's about reading reviews and capturing the essential out of it to evaluate if the cited problems or fault of a said game will bother you. That's why people read critics. Not because they don't have an opinion, no, but because they want to extract the things that will or will not bother them.
And not everybody has the money or time to try out everything that comes out. Metacritics are often spot on on the overall score a game should have.